Multi-market broadcast tracking, management and reporting method and system

1. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, comprising:

assigning unique identifiers to a plurality of expected commercial advertisements;

recording information regarding said plurality of expected commercial advertisements and said respective unique identifiers in a computer database;

comparing published broadcast schedules from a plurality of broadcast markets including a base market each broadcast schedule comprising a plurality of broadcast items;

determining time adjustments between (a) broadcast times of program items from said plurality of said broadcast schedules and (b) a broadcast time of an associated broadcast item in said broadcast schedule of said base market;

recording said time adjustment for each of said broadcast items from said plurality of broadcast schedules in said broadcast schedules associated with a related broadcast item;

receiving electronic detections of a plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of a commercial advertisement, said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances comprising a plurality of broadcast markets;

recording information regarding said detections in a computer database;

said step of recording information regarding detections of actual market-broadcast instances of said commercial advertisement comprises:

using said broadcast schedules to identify a broadcast item scheduled for broadcast during a time and date of said detection;

retrieving time adjustment associated with said identified broadcast item; and

recording said retrieved time adjustment in database associated with said detection;

associating related ones of said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of said commercial advertisement in a computer database, said related ones of said actual market-broadcast instances comprising a plurality of broadcast markets;

said step of associating related ones of said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of commercial advertisements comprises comparing said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of commercial advertisements to one another using said recorded time adjustments;

recording information regarding a plurality of multi-market broadcast orders of commercial advertisements in a computer database;

comparing detections from broadcast markets in a time zone of said base market to anchor detection records of said base market using an associated time adjustment;

associating said detections from broadcast markets in said time zone of said base market to related anchor detection records of said base market;

after comparing detections from broadcast markets in said time zone of said base market to said anchor detection records of said base market:

comparing detections from other broadcast markets to said anchor detection records, using an associated time adjustment, and

associating said detections from other broadcast markets to related anchor detection records;

associating related ones of said actual market-broadcast instances of said commercial advertisement with a related multi-market broadcast order for said commercial advertisement in a computer database, said multi-market broadcast order comprising said plurality of broadcast markets.

2. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 1 , further comprising:

during said comparison of detections from broadcast markets in said time zone of said base market to anchor detection records of said base market, creating a new anchor detection record for an unmatched detection if no association is made between said unmatched detection and an existing anchor detection record.

3. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 2 , further comprising:

during said comparison of detections from broadcast markets in said time zone of said base market to anchor detection records of said base market, matching being performed according to a schedule method wherein a criteria is a common distributor.

4. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 3 , further comprising:

after said comparison of detections from broadcast markets in said time zone of said base market to anchor detection records of said base market, performing a first purge of anchor detections that are associated with less than a predetermined minimum number of detections.

5. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 4 , further comprising, after said first purge:

comparing detections from all broadcast markets to anchor detections, using an associated time adjustment, and associating said detections from all broadcast markets to related anchor detection records; and

matching being performed according to a schedule method wherein a criteria is a common distributor.

6. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 5 , wherein

after said steps of comparing and matching subsequent to said first purge, performing a second purge of anchor detection records that are associated with less than a predetermined number of detections.

7. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 6 , further comprising, after said second purge:

comparing detections from all broadcast markets to anchor detection records, using an associated time adjustment, and associating said detections from all broadcast markets to related anchor detection records;

matching being performed according to a network method wherein criteria include a common national call letter and a base time zone adjusted date and time; and

during said comparison of detections from all broadcast markets according to said network method, creating a new anchor detection record for an unmatched detection if no association is made between said unmatched detection and an existing anchor detection record.

8. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 7 , further comprising, after said comparison according to said network method:

performing a third purge of anchor detection records that are associated with less than a second predetermined minimum number of detections.

9. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 8 , further comprising, after said third purge:

comparing detections from all broadcast markets to anchor detection records, using an associated time adjustment, and associating said detections from all broadcast markets to related anchor detection records; and

matching being performed according to a schedule method wherein a criteria is a common distributor.

10. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 9 , wherein:

said step of associating related ones of said actual market-broadcast instances of said commercial advertisement with a related multi-market broadcast order for said commercial advertisement in a computer database, comprises:

performing a first comparison of detections to multi-market broadcast orders using a first set of criteria; and

after said first comparison, performing a second comparison of detections to multi-market broadcast orders using a second set of criteria, said second comparison comprising a plurality of comparison iterations using various comparison parameters each more permissive than said first set of criteria.

11. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 10 , wherein:

said first set of criteria comprises:

as between a detection and a multi-market broadcast order, a match between:

an agency,

a client,

a broadcast market, and

a call letter;

an ISCI code of the detection record within an ISCI GROUP of the multi-market broadcast order;

a detection date within start and end dates of the multi-market broadcast order;

a day of the detection within allowable weekdays of the multi-market broadcast order;

a time of the detection within start and end times of the multi-market broadcast order.

12. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

a first time allowance.

13. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an incorrect ISCI code.

14. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an incorrect ISCI code of an incorrect duration.

15. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an extra spot of the commercial.

16. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an extra spot of the commercial and a first time allowance.

17. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

a second time allowance.

18. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an incorrect ISCI code and an extra spot.

19. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, as in claim 11 , wherein a comparison parameter of said second set of criteria comprises:

an allowance for an incorrect ISCI code of an incorrect duration and an extra spot.